


One of them

by Ekoe



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Different species, Falling In Love, Haikyuu!! Fantasy Exchange 2018, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 10:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16553666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ekoe/pseuds/Ekoe
Summary: From generation to generation, will-o-the-wips are told to stay away from humans, these evil and mischievous creatures. However Hinata and Yamaguchi are not like their peers, they are curious. Their lives took an unexpected turn when they met this little boy into the woods...





	One of them

**Author's Note:**

  * For [olevaot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/olevaot/gifts).



> Hi! It is my very first story in English and on this website. I participated in the Haikyuu!! Fantasy exchange 2018 and this is my gift for olevaot. I tried my best and I'm really proud of this first chapter. I hope you will like it too. Enjoy!

Among the creatures of the forest, one was particularly mysterious for humans. They were known as will-o-the wisps, they were so small that many times, humans would not even acknowledged them. They needed clean water and the energy of the sun to survive ; so they usually lived in woods, deserts or mountains. Actually, anywhere as long as humans hadn’t invaded it already.

Yamaguchi Tadashi was one of them. He grew up in the forest of Ainhoa, somewhere in Scotland, alongside his parents, his little sister Yachi and his friend Hinata. The older he got, the more he realized he wasn’t like the other will-o-the-wisps his age. All his life he has been repeated that he should never approach humans. Yet he was curious. One of his favourite place was a fountain, built by humans. The hand-painted embellishments looked like leaves were running around the fountain. A fairy’s wand poured water into a shell covered in moss. Every time he needed to be calm and think, Yamaguchi would go there. He didn’t know how people, depicted as cruel and destructive, could create such a marvel. He had always wanted to meet one but he was not the type to disobey. Hinata and he longed to become sentries since they knew what it meant, so when they turned 7, they started their learning. Sentries were the only ones allowed to venture out of the colony. For people as adventurous as Hinata or as curious as Yamaguchi it was a breath of fresh air. Even if will-o-the wisps were close to nature, the old rules were strict and growing up in the colony was oppressive. It would be badly seen if they stood out, they could not leave the colony, they could not use their powers for their own. Everything they did was for the wellbeing of the colony but worse than anything else : they couldn’t hide anything from the Wise. They were the oldest will-o-the wisp of the colony

Today, as they both turned 10, for the very first time, they were going outside without any supervisor. They would fly to the Old Wall, stay there for a couple of hours and come back to debrief to the Wise. Yamaguchi was excited like never before, but Hinata was ecstatic. They carried their glider to the launch area where they met their instructor :  
"Don't go further than the Old Wall, don't venture anywhere alone, always stay together. If anything happens and you can't go back to the colony, send us a ladybug. And if I hear about you meeting a human, I swear I'm going to kill you. Understood ?"  
He didn't wait for an answer and left.

Like always, Hinata went at the front of the glider. Smaller than Yamaguchi, it was easier to maneuver this way.

As sentries, at the end of their third year of learning, they had to build their own glider with their partner. Two Smarts, at the beginning of their second year, were paired and they would be together for the rest of their career. Luckily, Yamaguchi grew up with Hinata so he knew him more than he knew himself. He managed to take advantage of Hinata's height, agility and incredible jump. Once it was perfectly designed for them, they decorated it with crow's and raven’s feathers. "Like that" have said Hinata once, "we could fly all day and humans would never suspect anything." Obviously, Smarts needed to be indiscernible from Nature so no human could tell they were not a leaf, a bird or a flower. Their colony, one of the oldest, had been built in the heart of a hundred years old tree. The Wise lived on top of the trunk and the food providers had their home on the floor. The higher you were in the hierarchy, the higher you lived in the trunk. Sentries worked on branches alongside artists and musicians.The view from the very top of the tree never failed to take Yamaguchi’s breath away, he almost felt the urge to jump, hoping to fly.  
On this special day, Hinata and he were there to throw themselves in the wind and he couldn’t help but shiver with anticipation.

Hinata bent his knees and jumped, propelling them in the sky.  
Everytime, they screamed in unison, their voice joining the birds’. He couldn’t feel more alive.

 

 

« I wish I could meet a human one day. » said Hinata out of the blue.  
Yamaguchi turned around so quick his neck cracked. He watched his friend, incredulous. He never knew his friend was curious about humans too.  
« Wha...what? »  
« You heard me. I don’t want to live like all of them, afraid of something I never saw. If I meet at least one and I realize that they are the monsters depicted in the books I would accept it but, excluding the Wise, nobody had ever seen a human. How can we say they are creatures of the dark if we have never interacted with them? »  
Yamaguchi couldn’t do anything but nod. Hinata being his best friend, he told him everything, but « humans » was a sensitive subject. He didn’t know how to introduce his doubts to him. Fortunately, Hinata was more straightforward and was not used to think twice before he spoke.  
« You know that every once in a while I...kind of...disappear ? » Hinata didn’t move but Yamaguchi knew that he had all his friend’s attention. « I actually go to a fountain. Not like the nymphs’, not a natural one. This... fountain was built by humans. » Yamaguchi saw the sparkle in Hinata’s eyes , the one he always witnessed when they talked about flying or eating.  
Yamaguchi took a deep breath and resumed, serene:  
“I wish I could meet a human one day too. I think you’re right, I don’t want to believe that they are those evil creatures depicted in the stories.”  
Hinata nodded and sat on the edge of the stone.

They were watching over a gigantic poppy field since their departure, it was the very end of their territory which extended over several hectares. On one side of the field, the wood started, on the other side -where they had stopped- the Old Wall drew the limit between their world and humans’.

“For instance” started Hinata, after a moment of silence. “ We always refer to the Old Wall when we talk about protection against humans but who built it? Humans. It doesn’t make any sense.”  
Yamaguchi agreed, silently watching an eagle fly above their head.

As he expected, for their first mission on their own, their supervisor didn’t trust them. He sighed. He didn’t even try to be discreet, an eagle seriously?

The two friends stood silent for two hours, sometimes using their gliders to fly over the field and going back to the Old Wall. Being a sentry was not as exciting as they have imagined. They returned back to the colony, reported everything they saw to the Wise -three squirrels, two nymphs, a deer and a lot of rodents- and went back home.

 

For two weeks, they did the same thing again and again, without complaining or whining and behaved exactly like the supervisor wanted them to. Finally, he gave them the symbol of his trust, the greatest award:the cristal. Their cristal was the only thing that could allow them to use their power. Without it, the magic in their veins was still there but they couldn’t express it. Every adult in the colony, at the end of their learning, received a cristal. For every profession, the cristal had a specific form. For example, his mother was a cook, so her cristal was shaped as a knife and his father was given a hammer when he became a mason.  
Sentries received a crude cristal; hung to a chain, it never left their neck.  
« I can’t wait to learn how to use it! » exclaimed Hinata, two days later, sat on the Old Wall. Yamaguchi starred at the horizon, equally excited.

 

 

« Kei ! Are you sure you won’t be cold? »  
« No, please let me go! » begged the little boy trying to escape from his mother’s grip.  
Tsukishima, saddled with an entirely green outfit and a backpack half his size, stood in the hallway all dither, waiting to go outside. Since he went in the backcountry to visit his grandparents, he had longed to explore the wood near their house.

The sun was shining bright and the weather was ideal on this day of mid-may, a little breeze ran through the blond hair, carrying the smell of the woods. Tsukishima held a book in his left hand, trying to recognize the different trees and flowers he walked next to.When he did, he would grab the bright yellow camera in plastic his brother gave him and immortalize his discovery. He wandered deeper and deeper into the forest, gathering a certain amount of “treasures” such as a lesser celandine, a polished pebble or various leaves. Tsukishima didn’t know how long he has been walking but his stomach started to growl loudly and afraid that it would scare the birds and other wild animals, he decided to take a break and eat. Moving forward a little bit, he came out on a blooming poppy field that extended for what seemed like miles and miles. His eyes widened of excitement. He ran to the first flowers and squating took some photos before smelling the delicate red orbs. He sat against wall ruins, and relieved the tightness in his belly with a sigh. He stood there, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his skin, and soon he fell asleep.

“You were right, this fountain is an absolute marvel, it is so calming!”  
Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow at his friend, clearly mocking him.  
“You calm?”  
“Believe it or not, sometimes it happens” stated Hinata with a pout.  
The two friends were walking through the poppy field they were used to watch now. Unfortunately, their glider broke the day before, when they have been attacked by a bigger bird, probably a kite. They asked Yamaguchi’s father to repair it but even with his cristal, he couldn’t do wonders so for two or three days they would have to work on feet. This is the main reason -besides their arguing- why they didn’t see the little boy asleep against the Old Wall until it was too late. Their talking woke him up.

Horrified, they turned their head in sync towards the groan that just escaped the boy’s mouth. Tsukishima rubbed his eyes while a huge yawn deformed his face, offering a terrifying vision to the two will-o-the-wisps at his feet.  
“What the hell is that!” whispered Hinata in Yamaguchi’s ear.”You’re the smart one.”  
Both of them remained totally immobile, acting like they were confronting a predator.  
“I don’t know.”  
They didn’t had time to imagine an escape that the creature had already noticed them.  
“What are you?” Tsukishima asked but all Hinata and Kageyama heard was an unintelligible babble.  
“I think it tries to communicate, it doesn’t seem too dangerous.” started Yamaguchi. “Nevermind, retreat, retreat” he screamed, trying to hide behind Hinata’s back. The young boy had just reached his hand to grab the tiny creatures but retracted it when he realized that he was scaring them.  
“Maybe, our cristal would help. We never really tried to use it.”  
“Hinata, no ! it’s not a good...too late.”  
Indeed, his friend already approached Tsukishima. Seeing that he didn’t move, Hinata gained confidence and started climbing his leg.  
Tsukishima was petrified, a minuscule human-like creature was casually walking on his leg!  
For a reason he ignored, he wasn’t afraid. He actually let it come to his shoulder.

Hinata took a pause when he reached a kind of flat platform, then he flexed his legs and jumped. He emptied his spirit so only the vision of him floating in front of the creature would stay in his mind. And magically, it worked. He was now in front of Tsukishima’s eyes, eyes that look a lot like his, Yamaguchi’s or any will-o-the-wisps he knew. He focused on his lips and pulled out, once again, his cristal. He then concentrated on understanding what the giant mouth under his feet was saying. As soon as the image in his mind changed, he fell. He expected to feel the hard ground against his back but he bounced on a softer surface. He opened his eyes to see the creature caught him and he could clearly recognize worry in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” asked Tsukishima. He was astounded when he saw the little guy float in front of his face and he didn’t expected it to fall right away.  
Hinata looked back to Yamaguchi, a huge smile on his face.  
“Do you understand it too?” He asked, enthusiast.  
“I do.” answered his friend, shocked.  
“What are you exactly?” asked Tsukishima once again.  
“I am a sentry.” bragged Hinata.  
Tsukishima tilted his head on the side, he was only ten, he didn’t develop a complex vocabulary yet, he heard it somewhere but didn’t know its meaning.  
“We are will-o-the-wisps.” yelled Yamaguchi, still on the floor. Tsukishima grabbed him, and dropped him off on his hand, next to his friend.  
“I’ve heard of them, my grandad used to tell me stories about them. So you look like that?”  
“Of course! What would we look like otherwise?”  
“I imagined you way shorter. Maybe long like my middle finger. And I thought you were only a ball of light. My grandma said will-o-the-wisps were not real creatures, that they were just a mixture of flammable gases released by the decomposition of plants in marshy areas.”  
Hinata gasped, clearly offended.  
“What kind of creature are you, then?”  
“I’m a human…” Tsukishima couldn’t finish his sentence that the two boys in his palm screamed, panicked.  
“What? What’s the problem?”  
“You are an evil creature.” Tried to say Yamaguchi calmly, but his voice was shaking.  
“No I’m not, I’m just a little boy. i can’t be evil.”  
As if this reasoning was worth an hour long speech, the two will-o-the-wisps calmed down a little bit and thought about it. They turned their back to their porter and discussed quietly.  
“You said two weeks ago that you wanted to meet a human!”  
“Yes and you know I’m not exactly “brave”. And you said it first.”  
“Oh! And I’m the childish one?”  
Yamaguchi couldn't argue with that, for once, Hinata got a point.

“Okay, maybe you’re not an evil creature. But tell us more about humans. Is it true that you eat live animals?”  
Tsukishima read in Hinata’s eyes an avidity he recognized because he had the same when his grandad started telling stories.  
“No we don’t...do you?”  
“We don’t eat animals at all.”  
“So you never tasted meat?”  
“We don’t know what it is, is it a substance that you take and that makes you go crazy?”  
“What? No!...Who told you those things about humans?”  
“The Wise of course.”  
In front of Tsukishima’s puzzled look, Yamaguchi explained that the Wise was the oldest of them all and that he was already the oldest of them all at the time when the second oldest of them all was the youngest. Tsukishima had to repeat this sentence in his head five times before understanding what he meant.  
“He is - well he was - the only one to ever meet a human so he was the only one to know about them. Basically our job, as sentries, consist in protecting the colony. For that, when we meet a creature potentially dangerous - and humans are on top of the list - we need to lure it so that he would go away. And for that we light up our bodies and we attract them further.”  
“You can light up your bodies?” asked Tsukishima, incredulous. “Show me, show me!”  
And they did, Yamaguchi turned into a pastel green and Hinata into a bright orange, almost blinding.  
“That’s awesome!” Tsukishima has never seen something as cool before.

A shadow eclipsed the sun for a millisecond but Yamaguchi noticed it. Hinata’s talent was his speed and his powerful jump but his was his power of observation. When he recognized the shadow, he panicked.  
“Human!” he ordered dryly and loud enough to cover up Hinata’s voice. “You need to go!”  
Seeing Tsukishima’s perplexed expression, he softened his voice:  
“Trust me, you need to go now or we are all going to be in trouble. Meet us here tomorrow when the sun hits this tree.” Yamaguchi pointed a hundred-year-old oak tree and begged one more time. “Please go back to your home.”  
Clearly disappointed, Tsukishima looked the two will-o-the-wisps one last time before disappearing into the forest.  
“Why did you do that, it was the perfect opportunity to get to know humans.”  
Hinata was mad and Yamaguchi hated that but he looked to the sky and invited his friend to imitate him.  
“We were observed. They still don’t trust us. If we kept talking, they would have gotten suspicious.”  
Yamaguchi released a long sigh:  
“And now: time to face the Wise, it’s not gonna be pretty.”

**Author's Note:**

> Aahhh....that was short, hn? I hope you liked it. I really wanted to show a different perspective of the mysterious and unfortunately unknown will-o-the-wisps. I will get more into dephts in the next chapters.  
> I apologise for any mistakes or weird sentences, english is not my mother tongue. However, I would love to improve and deliver better stories so please let a comment and help me get better!


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